Your van's network

The Network tab on the Habitation dashboard answers the questions you actually ask about your van's internet: are we online, over what, how good is it, and what is connected. It needs a router Sensa can read, such as a Teltonika.

The Network card

Day to day the tab shows one card.

• At the top: Online or Offline, which connection you are on, how good it is (Good, Fair or Poor), and how many devices are connected, wired and wireless.
• Beneath it: your router and your Starlink dish, each as a small box with its picture, its status, Restart and a round power button.
• Beside them: Order of use, the list of your internet connections in the order the router tries them.

Tap a connection in the list to open its readings. For the dish, the same popup carries its sleep window, Restart and power.

Restart asks twice: the first press changes it to Restart now?, with Cancel beside it, so a stray tap does nothing. A router or dish is back in a couple of minutes.

Choosing which connection comes first

Your router can have more than one way onto the internet, for example Starlink, a mobile SIM and a campsite's Wi-Fi. It uses the first one in Order of use that is working, and moves down the list when one drops.

To change the order, drag a connection up or down the list and let go. With a finger, press and hold until it lifts; with a mouse, press and move. The router takes the new order straight away.

The list keeps itself up to date while it is on screen, so if you change the order in the router's own web page, Sensa shows it within a few seconds.

Joining a Wi-Fi

Your router can use someone else's Wi-Fi as a way onto the internet, such as a campsite's, a marina's or your Starlink's own. Press Join a Wi-Fi under Order of use. Sensa lists the networks the router can hear, with how strong each one is (Strong, Good, Weak or Very weak). Pick one, type its password and press Connect.

Once connected it joins Order of use, and you drag it to where you want it. To drop it again, tap it and press Forget this Wi-Fi. The router keeps one Wi-Fi like this at a time.

A network that makes you sign in on a web page first, as many hotels do, shows Needs a sign-in the router cannot use. Joining moves your van's own Wi-Fi onto that network's channel, so phones may drop and reconnect for a moment.

Only connections you have switched on

The list shows the connections your router has enabled. One that is switched off in the router does not appear, so there is nothing to drag that would never be used.

With Nerd Mode on

Turn on Nerd Mode and, on a tablet or larger screen, the tab becomes a diagram of the whole network:

• On the left, your internet connections in order of use. Each one says whether it is In use, on Standby, Asleep or Down, with a bar for each reading behind its grade, and the dish shows how much power it is drawing. Drag a connection to reorder it here too.
• In the middle, your router, with Restart beneath it.
• On the right, your van's separate networks (for example Secure, IoT, CCTV and Guest), each with how many devices are on it, wired and wireless, and whether it can reach the internet. Devices lists them by name. A network your router does not have reads Not set up.

The router and dish show their firmware version in the bottom left corner.

A phone is too narrow for the diagram, so with Nerd Mode on a phone shows the individual cards instead: the connection order, the router, the dish and any network switch.

Config Network

Config Network sets your Teltonika router up the way Sensa Nomad sets up a van's network, with separate networks for your own devices, smart devices, cameras and guests. See Our best practice setup.

Open Settings, choose the Devices tab and tap the cog on your Teltonika router's row. The first time, the router asks only for its admin password (the username is always admin); press Save and Config Network opens. After that it is the Config Network tile on the router's settings. A managed switch's settings carry the same tile, which opens its router's screen.

You do not have to use it. Until you do, Sensa treats the router as yours to run: the Network tab shows the networks your router already has, under their own names, and never marks them as wrong.

Config Network reads your router and lists what it would add or change, one row for each part of the van, with the parts that are already right on one line. It also asks how many wired devices each network has, so it can plan which of the router's sockets each network uses.

Pressing Fix

Nothing changes on your router until you press Fix. Before you can, type a password for each new Wi-Fi network. Your existing Wi-Fi networks keep their own passwords.

• It is all or nothing. Sensa takes a copy of the router's settings first. If any change is refused, or the router does not check out afterwards, the copy is put back, so your router is never left half changed. If your Sensa unit loses power part way, it finishes or puts things back the next time it starts.
• Wi-Fi changes go last, then the router restarts, which takes a few minutes.
• If a Wi-Fi network is renamed, your Sensa unit rejoins it by itself. Your tablet or phone does not: Config Network tells you which Wi-Fi to reconnect to before you press Fix.
• What it never does: change your main network, delete anything, or move the socket your Sensa unit is plugged into.

Each Fix is recorded in the Settings Log.

With Nerd Mode on

Press the Nerd Mode button beside the title for two tabs:

• Router diagram, a picture of your router with its sockets, each showing its network and what is plugged into it. Drag a network, a switch or a device onto a socket (or tap it, then tap the socket) to change the plan, then press Save. Fix follows what the diagram shows. If the van needs more sockets, the diagram suggests the Teltonika switch to add, with its picture.
• Compatibility check, how ready your router is as a percentage, with a card for each part of the van marked Ready, Changes, New or Check by hand, and Details, a table of every setting as it is now and as it would be.

Managed switches

A Teltonika TSW202 managed switch that you have added in Settings, with its password, is drawn under the router, a tile per port. Drag a network onto a port to put that port on it, and Fix sets up the switch as part of the same all or nothing change. The port the switch uses to reach the router, and the port your Sensa unit is on, are never changed.

The router's GPS

A Teltonika router with GPS can be the van's GPS source, and it drives the Cab speedometer. GPS Refresh on the router's settings is how often Sensa reads it, from 1 second (the default, so the speedometer keeps up) to 300 seconds. The router's GPS must be switched on in the router itself; Config Network's compatibility check shows whether it is, and Fix switches it on.

eSIM data

A Teltonika router with an eSIM, such as the RUTM11 eSIM, gets an eSIM card on this tab. Other routers do not. It shows the Plan in use, how much data is Used this month and, on a plan bought through Sensa, how much is Left and when it Ends.

• Buy data. Pick a country and a plan, then scan the QR code with your phone and pay there. On a plan bought through Sensa the data is added to the eSIM you are using now; otherwise a new eSIM is installed on the router once you have paid.
• Add your own eSIM. Bought an eSIM from another provider? Scan the card's QR code with your phone, then scan, upload a screenshot of, or paste the QR code your provider gave you. eSIMs that only install through a provider's own phone app cannot be used.

Either way the card moves on by itself, showing the order's progress until it reads Installed. Keep the van's other internet (Starlink or another SIM) on until then, because the router needs it to fetch the new eSIM.

With more than one plan on the router, Plans on this router lists them; press Use to switch. Switching drops the mobile connection for about a minute. Buying and switching ask for the Settings PIN if you have Admin Lock on.

How much data Sensa uses

On a metered mobile plan, add the Data usage card: it shows how much internet data your Sensa unit has used in the last 24 hours and 30 days, and what it was used for. It is not on any tab to start with. In Design Mode, press Add card on the tab you want it on; it is suggested for this tab. Its (i) button explains what is counted.

The figures are close to, not exactly, what your mobile provider counts. They leave out remote access sessions, Home Assistant's own traffic and operating system updates.

Admin Lock

If you have switched on Admin Lock, the router and dish Power, Restart and Sleep controls, and Join a Wi-Fi, ask for the Settings PIN first, wherever they appear. Type it once and the next control does not ask again until the unlock ends.